"Destroyed?"I cried." Maisoui; did you not know?""Howshould I know? It is true I had never heard of this work; but I thought perhapsit had fallen into the hands of a private owner. Even now there is no certainlist of Strickland's paintings. ""When hegrew blind he would sit hour after hour in those two rooms that he had painted,looking at his works with sightless eyes, and seeing, perhaps, more than he hadever seen in his life before. Ata told me that he never complained of his fate,he never lost courage. To the end his mind remained serene and undisturbed. Buthe made her promise that when she had buried him -- did I tell you that I dughis grave with my own hands, for none of the natives would approach theinfected house, and we buried him, she and I, sewn up in three pareos joinedtogether, under the mango-tree -- he made her promise that she would set fireto the house and not leave it till it was burned to the ground and not a stickremained. "I did not speakfor a while, for I was thinking. Then I said:"Heremained the same to the end, then. ""Do youunderstand? I must tell you that I thought it my duty to dissuade her. ""Evenafter what you have just said?""Yes; forI knew that here was a work of genius, and I did not think we had the right todeprive the world of it. But Ata would not listen to me. She had promised. Iwould not stay to witness the barbarous deed, and it was only afterwards that Iheard what she had done. She poured paraffin on the dry floors and on thepandanus-mats, and then she set fire. In a little while nothing remained butsmouldering embers, and a great masterpiece existed no longer.“怎么，毁掉了？”我喊起来。“是啊①。你不知道吗？”①原文为法语。“我怎么会知道？我没听说过这些作品倒是事实，但是我还以为它们落到某个私人收藏家手里去了呢。思特里克兰德究竟画了多少画儿，直到今天始终没有人编制出目录来。”“自从眼睛瞎了以后他就总是一动不动地坐在那两间画着壁画的屋子里，一坐就是几个钟头。他用一对失明的眼睛望着自己的作品，也许他看到的比他一生中看到的还要多。爱塔告诉我，他对自己的命运从来也没有抱怨过，他从来也不沮丧。直到生命最后一刻，他的心智一直是安详、恬静的。但是他叫爱塔作出诺言，在她把他埋葬以后——我告诉你没有，他的墓穴是我亲手挖的，因为没有一个土人肯走近这所沾染了病菌的房子，我们俩把他埋葬在那株芒果树底下，我同爱塔，他的尸体是用三块帕利欧缝在一起包裹起来的——他叫爱塔保证，放火把房子烧掉，而且要她亲眼看着房子烧光，在每一根木头都烧掉以前不要走开。”半天半天我没有说话；我陷入沉思中，最后我说：“这么说来，他至死也没有变啊。”“你了解吗？我必须告诉你，当时我觉得自己有责任劝阻她，叫她不要这么做。”“后来你真是这样说了吗？”“是的。因为我知道这是一个伟大天才的杰作，而且我认为，我们是没有权利叫人类失去它的。但是爱塔不听我的劝告。她已经答应过他了。我不愿意继续待在那儿，亲眼看着那野蛮的破坏活动。只是事情过后我才听人说，她是怎样干的。她在干燥的地板上和草席上倒上煤油，点起一把火来。没过半晌，这座房子就变成了焦炭，一幅伟大的杰作就这样化为灰烬了。”